Outdoor Advertising

The number of bus shelters will double in the city, and neither liquor nor tobacco advertisements will be allowed on them, under new contracts signed by the city. The contracts also allow city officials to review advertisements and to remove any they consider objectionable. Metro Display Advertising Inc. of Irvine and Eller Media Co. of Orange, which each have 15 shelters in the city, each will build 15 more.

A total of 19 anti-smoking billboards designed by teenage activists were put up Friday by outdoor advertising companies, signaling a victory for the youths. They had been lobbying billboard companies to limit ads promoting alcohol and tobacco near schools in low-income neighborhoods.

While not budging from its intention to ban political signs in public areas, the City Council conceded this week that its policy should be reviewed because it is having a negative effect on some small local churches. The council referred the issue to the Planning Commission, which will seek public comment next month on whether directional signs should be allowed for churches housed in temporary facilities like schools.

Those street-light-pole banners are everywhere--advertising church festivals, private school events, chamber of commerce food-tasting fairs and synagogue open houses. And the Los Angeles City Council routinely waives city fees for such community groups. That is, until a church in Porter Ranch put up 10 banners advertising its Easter service.

In a key victory in Agoura Hills' battle to enforce a long-standing ordinance against pole signs, three businesses have agreed to replace their signs with less conspicuous monument signs. The agreement with International House of Pancakes, Agoura Feed and Agoura-Las Virgenes Tax Service was reached after months of negotiations, Mike Kamino, senior planner for the city, said Monday.

The black Dalmatian spots are already appearing on backpacks, bedsheets and T-shirts. But a Walt Disney Co. advertising plan to put spots on the world-famous Hollywood sign seemed to be headed for the doghouse Friday. Facing skeptical city officials and a pack of unhappy neighbors, Disney at least temporarily withdrew its formal request for permission for the stunt promoting its new "101 Dalmatians" film.

Hoping to sharpen its competitive edge, the Don-A-Vee Jeep-Eagle dealership has won city permission to build what will be Placentia's tallest sign: a 90-foot electronic board next to the Orange Freeway. Officials said the big sign will be visible from both northbound and southbound freeway lanes. "For freeway traffic to see the sign, it needs to be that high," said Joyce R. Rosenthal, the city's director of development services.

A federal appeals court has upheld Baltimore's bans on billboards advertising tobacco and alcohol in most parts of the city, a ruling that could significantly bolster the Food and Drug Administration's efforts to keep alcohol and cigarette ads away from children. The U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., by a 2-1 vote Wednesday, upheld the 1994 statutes--the most restrictive of their type in the nation.

The road has not been a smooth one, but officials have finally reached an agreement with a sign maker to advertise the city in a big way. Motorists driving the Santa Ana and Artesia freeways next year will be greeted by electronic message boards as high as 80 feet and as wide as 50 feet. Mark Kudler, a partner in Bulletin Displays of Santa Fe Springs, has been authorized to begin the permit and planning processes for the first of two signs, the location and design of which have yet to be chosen.

One day after calling for a one-year moratorium on new billboards, Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Feuer recommended Wednesday a crackdown on signs that are illegally posted on public property. In the motion, Feuer instructed city officials to study higher fines for people who post illegal signs and to develop plans to work with neighborhood groups to fight the problem. "Visual blight can contribute to the decline of neighborhoods," he said.